On Aug 25th, Bethany, Lauren, Chrissy and I decided to go rock climbing for a day in Nanaimo River (Dion and Marilee were going to meet up with us later on). Chrissy has never climbed outdoors before, and Bethany and Lauren were always itching to do more rock climbing outside. We finally were able to arrange a day where all of us weren’t busy. So off we went!

The awesome part about Nanaimo River (Sunny Side) is, it’s a short hike to the crag. And once you get there, it’s an amazing view from up top, and then you get to rappel down. It’s always a great time!

Lead climbing a route called “Green (5.8)” (Thanks Lauren for taking some pics of me!)

Now that a top rope has been set up, it’s Bethany’s turn.

Lauren’s turn!

And this is Chrissy’s first outdoor climbing experience.

After this, we moved over to a really interesting corner climb. So after I set up the top rope, I stayed up at the top so I could take some pictures from up top. I’ve never done this kind of photography before, so it was new to me (which was really cool!). This route is called “Jamaica Jerk Off (5.7)”. Lauren was first to go on top rope!

Bethany’s turn on the route.

And Chrissy is next…

And look who finally showed up! Dion and Marilee!

Afterwards, we did a few more climbs… Lauren found a frog in a hole in the wall. It was an awesome day! Great to see Chrissy climb so well on her first time! As well as seeing the progress on Bethany and Lauren! Sooo proud of you all. It makes me super stoked seeing you all stoked on climbing and just getting better and better each time. Can’t wait for our next outdoor adventure!

Well…. Since I’m working full time now, I have to really take advantage of the weekends. Soooo what do I do? I go outdoor rock climbing! My friend Nashira came to make one last visit to Victoria before she moves to the interior (booooo!!), so Nashira, Dion, and I went to Nanaimo River for an awesome day of climbing on Sunny Side. I love this place! I also love the random chairs… Great view.

Also there’s a nice view of the river.

Once we finished taking pictures and admiring the view, we decided to get some rock climbing done! We decided to get to the bottom the cool way. Which is rappelling down with our gear. It’s always a good time.

This is Dion on Psychobabble (5.9) (the climber on the left).

This next route is called Jamaica Jerk Off (5.7)

While we were climbing, Nashira had homework to do.

This has become a pretty awesome day. I FINALLY finished one of my projects. The route is called Pseudo Placenta (5.11a). And my goal for this summer was to send a 5.11 route – which means climbing it without taking a fall or break. Soooo stoked!

photo by: Nashira Birch

Photo by: Nashira Birch

What an amazing day! So stoked to see what other projects I’ll be able to finish this summer!

Well, it’s been a few years since the last time I was here. Dion and I saw a break in the weather, soooo we decided to do some awesome rock climbing at Darkside. Once we started hiking to the climbing area, a huge wave of flashbacks from the last time we visit hit me. That was when I knew it was going to be an amazing day. We had a late start, but oh well… We’re outside! So let’s get our climb on!

This is our hike into the climbing area. It’s such a unique place! Walls on either side of you… These pictures don’t do it justice.

We set up shop and had lunch in the area. Afterwards, we were ready to climb! This is Dion rappelling on Puppets On Strings (5.9). We weren’t able to take pictures while climbing because it was just the two of us…. Oh well..

After a few warmups, we were onto Too Much Boogie (5.10c). Excellent route! Nice and high, tricky in some spots, and fun! This is one of my projects. One day I’ll send it. And this was the last climb of the day as it started getting dark.

Last day of camping at Nanaimo River! (sadface). Last night some jerks tried to break into the trunk of my car, but luckily they didn’t succeed. Instead they damaged the lock so now my key doesn’t work in the trunk. It really annoys me people who try to steal and/or break into things… I don’t understand how people can get so desperate… Gah! I can go on about this forever, but I won’t.

Dion and I packed up all our stuff and decided to check out the other side of Nanaimo River (it’s called the Dark Side) for some rock climbing. I’ve never been to the Dark Side before, so I was really excited to check it out.

We parked our car on the other side of the river and started walking to the rock climbing site. It’s such a cool place to hike as there’s parts where the ground is cracked and you can see down to the bottom. We then got to a skinnier trail and then we were greeted by a ladder going down under rocks. At this point I was pretty excited.

Once we got out from under the rocks, we were greeted by rocks on either side of us. It was a corridor. It seemed like something from Lord of the Rings. It was surreal! Everything about it looked beautiful – the rocks, the sights… Everything!

After a bunch of picture taking, we decided to keep on going. But every few steps we took, we kept getting distracted by more amazingness! This tree grew in the crack!

After a few hours of distractions, we were trying to figure out which climbs to do first. The only problem was, a lot of the rock was still a bit damp. So we had no choice but to warm up by lead climbing a 5.10c…. Well… I decided to warm up on it (I’ll update you guys with the name once I get back from Vancouver). This route was AMAZING! It had everything in it. Jugs, big moves, crimps, laybacks, cracks. It was great!

By the end of the route, I was really glad I was able to finish because my confidence isn’t that great yet. So there were a lot of times where I was pretty sketched out because I didn’t want to take a fall. But I think I’m slowly getting more confident every climb!! Afterwards, we attempted a 5.11 but failed miserably because the rock was wet. I ended up smashing my knee into the rock and left some blood behind… Oops! But oh well, we’ll be back for it! Can’t wait to get out there again!

Day two of the trip. Wake up to the sound of the river flowing below us, and boy was it humid there! But hey.. The view we wake up to makes it worth it.

After having an awesome breakfast, we were ready to get our climb on! We were feeling pretty strong, so we went up a few routes to warm up, and then I thought to myself “maybe today is the day where I conquer my summer goal” which is to lead climb a 5.11.

It was such a great route. The first bolt was pretty high, but I felt pretty confident getting there, so that was no problem. The first few moves to the first bolt were pretty straight forward, then the next move was pretty big as it was pretty high up (for a short person). So I had to use anything I could get. Once I got to the second bolt, I was pretty happy because the first two bolts you could still hit the ground if you fell. So after a few breaks, I got to the second bolt and clipped in (phew!!). The rest of the climb was awesome. Nice and crimpy. Excellent route!

Once I got to the top, I let out a huge yell of relief because lead climbing is super scary (in my opinion). Most of it is just psychological… So it was good to conquer this – SUMMER GOAL ACHIEVED!!

This is Dion giving it a try as well.

So overall, it was an amazing day of rock climbing. But right now I’m in Vancouver, so I forget what the name of this route is, and once I get a few more pictures from my friend, I’ll be able to get you all more details about this route.

Dion and I (Rhiannon bailed at the last minute… Sadface) were planning on going to Squamish to hike and rock climb, but the weather forecast looked like crap, We played it safe and decided to go to Nanaimo River instead. We left on July 17th and came back on July 19th. It was a blast! ….. As usual.

We got to Nanaimo River around 5:30pm ish? It was pretty late in the day. But we made it! We lugged all our stuff to our “campsite” and luckily we found two wood pallets, so we carried those back to our campsite and took it apart for firewood (yay for free stuff!). And this was the tool we had to tear those pallets apart. We decided that it would be quicker to do it this way rather than driving into town and picking up an axe of some sort… But yes, it worked!

After setting up and all that, we managed to get a climb or two in. It was raining a little bit, so it wasn’t ideal rock climbing conditions. A little bit slippery… But oh well. Here’s our sweet spot where we camped!

And of course… We had a fire!

And that was pretty much it for day number one. Keep on checking back for details on the other two days!

Ok, quick post before I have to head off to music practice. I’m almost halfway through my year long HDR project! Yay!

Dion and I went rock climbing and camping at Nanaimo River. We were there for 3 days, and it was awesome! This is the view we get to wake up to… Not too shabby. This is Sunny Side where we spent a whole day rock climbing.

10mm, ISO 200, F8

The last day of rock climbing, we decided to check out the other side of the river which is called “Dark Side”. Amazing rock climbing. This place is so crazy! We hiked from the car and down a ladder and had to go through the underside of huge rocks. It was quite something. Here’s an HDR pic of what I’m talking about.

11mm, ISO 400, F4.5

Once you walk out from under the huge rocks and all that, you’re greeted by amazing looking rock faces on both sides. There’s a lot of amazing climbs here!

10mm, ISO 400, F4

So that’s a sneak peak of my rock climbing/camping trip. Stay tuned for a more detailed blog posting of the whole trip!